Integrated circuits perform a variety of functions, spanning a variety of applications. Conventional integrated circuits typically include a semiconductor die, sometimes with thousands, millions, or even billions of circuit components, encased in a package, made of plastic or ceramic materials. The semiconductor die is operably coupled to one or more electrically conductive contacts that extend out of the package to enable electrical communication between the semiconductor die and external electronic devices, often through a printed circuit board (PCB).
The demand for higher-density integrated circuits has driven the semiconductor industry to manufacture semiconductor dies with smaller and smaller circuit components. In addition, in order to keep pace with the demand for higher-density integrated circuits, some manufacturers have begun stacking semiconductor dies. During conventional power-up of stacked semiconductor dies, each die of the stack is powered up concurrently, which may result in drawing a relatively large peak current during power-up. In addition, voltage transients may be relatively large, which may lead to improper powering up of the die stack as a whole. Also, conventional semiconductor dies may monitor a power supply voltage, and reset if the magnitude of the power supply voltage drops below a reset threshold. In such semiconductor dies, the voltage transients at power-up may be large enough to cause the power supply voltage to drop below the reset thresholds for the semiconductor dies, which may result in a repeating cycle of attempted power-up and reset.